Embedded Files
COVID-19 forced schools to close in March of 2020. Globally, this mass closing of schools displaced 1.5 billion students and 63 million teachers (SOURCE). Maryland School Systems discovered it wasn't easy to go virtual. A lack of teacher training, the digital divide, lack of accessible tools, lack of instructional or planning time, high teacher anxiety, and mass unemployment created a challenging environment for instructional success.
In the U.S., most of the 55.6 million K-12 students were sent home not to step foot back into schools again physically. Individual school systems were left on their own to offer instruction at a distance.
As schools continue to use blended models of instruction for the 2022-2023 school year, the School of Education wants to provide its teacher candidates with resources to aid them as they assist, plan, and facilitate real-world and digital learning experiences for students.
Synchronous Classroom Sessions
Synchronous Classroom Sessions
Many of Maryland's School Systems are planning for some form of online synchronous experience. Educators must take this opportunity to develop relationships and facilitate social emotional learning experiences.
Relationship building is paramount. Since many people are isolated from one another during the pandemic, a considerable number of people are experiencing some form of mental trauma. It is crucial for teachers and teacher candidates to be the champions of the learning process through such trying times. What follows are some suggested activities to conduct with learners during synchronous sessions in order to build relationships and establish a rapport.
Establish Expectations and Digital Citizenship Practices
Each video conference software has a particular interface with different features. During the first meeting, review the interface and its functionality (how to mute audio, how to turn off video, how to enter text into the chat interface, etc.)
Communicate synchronous times to parents and students well in advance so the household can prepare the home environment for the learner and their session.
Ask students to mute their audio when they are not sharing. This will ensure there is no interruptions because of background noise.
Ask students to be respectful of everyone in the virtual session (both teachers and other students)
Ask students to avoid overusing the chat feature or other video features that may distract the class.
Develop Routines & Expectations
Take attendance (Idea: Share a Google Form link in the chat feature and ask students to click on it to provide their name and answer a short anticipatory question about the upcoming lesson.)
Communicate what materials or tools they will need during the session. (This is best done before the meeting.)
Conduct brief microlectures with students, but elicit engagement every few minutes. (Every Pupil Response, Q&A, Thumbs-Up/Down, Jazz Hands)
Share notes or a summary of a session in case a student misses the session.
As confidence develops in your class, ask students to take over for a short period of time and teach the class.
Create an exit ticket for the session (Idea: Use another Google Form, a Google Slides deck, or a Kahoot to provide conduct formative assessment)
Social Emotional Learning
Do not lose patience if technology fails you or a student. Come up with Plan B.
Conduct an interest survey to become familiar with student interests, passions, hobbies, etc. . Use the results of these questions to create your own questions to ask students as they join the virtual session (developing relationships).
If a student is misbehaving, find the audio and video features to temporarily disable them.
Encourage sharing.
Instead of a mass exodus at the end of the session, conduct a Q&A for each student. After they answer a clarifying or debriefing question about the session, they may leave the session.
Digital Learning Tools & Strategies
Digital Learning Tools & Strategies
Google Drive & Applications
Google Drive & Applications
With a Google Account, you get 15 GB of storage for free. Storage gets used by Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos, so you can store files, save your email attachments, and back up photos and videos. Create and collaborate with others. Share documents and files, build out spreadsheets and make a presentation on the fly with Docs, Sheets and Slides apps.
Google Docs features smart editing and styling tools to help learners easily format text and paragraphs. They can also choose from hundreds of fonts, add links, images, and drawings. Google Docs is ideal for student collaboration. Students or student groups can create and share stories, reports, notes, or projects.
Google Sheets is ideal for collecting and representing data in spreadsheets. It makes data pop with colorful charts and graphs. Built-in formulas, pivot tables and conditional formatting options save time and simplify common spreadsheet tasks. Google Sheets is fantastic for collecting data and creating graphs in math or science.
Google Slides makes ideas shine and flow with a variety of presentation themes, hundreds of fonts, embedded video, animations, and more. Teachers can share lecture content using a neat, attractive slide deck, or, they can provide a slide for each student to participate and share content on in real time. A new feature allows audio files to be uploaded to each slide (for narration).
Google Forms allows users to create surveys, polls, or quizzes with numerous question options (multiple choice, dropdowns, short answer, linear scale). Developers can add images and YouTube videos, or get fancy with page branching and question skip logic. Responses to the surveys or quizzes are automatically collected in Forms and can be displayed as a spreadsheet or graph.
Google Drive Directions and FAQs
HyperDoc
HyperDoc
A HyperDoc is a digital, hyperconnected document—such as a Google Doc or Microsoft Word Doc—where all components of a learning cycle have been pulled together into one central location. Within a single document, students are provided with hyperlinks to all of the resources they need in order to complete a learning progression.
Example #1: Immigration
Example #2: 50 States Digital Roadtrip
Many HyperDocs follow this basic formula that takes students through six steps of a learning journey:
In Engage, educators must hook learners and engage them. They must make sure to activate their students' prior knowledge. Some suggestions include using an anticipatory set, video clip, interactive website, or audio recording. In Explore, educators link resources such as videos, documents, or articles for students to explore for more information. In Explain, educators clarify the learning objective for their learners. This is where you could teach a whole group lesson , small groups, or add additional resources for students to explore on their own. In Apply, educators must share what they want their students to create to demonstrate their learning. Make sure to give clear, concise instructions for the task(s). During Share, educators provide a way for students to share their work and receive feedback. In the Reflect stage, learners must pause for reflection (whole class, think-pair-share, etc.) or link them to a digital way to share their thoughts. Finally, Extend provides learners with extra activities, additional online resources, or an additional challenge to extend their thinking.
Whiteboard.fi
Whiteboard.fi
Whiteboard.fi is a simple tool that can be used instantly. By creating a class and letting students join, everyone will get a digital whiteboard. As a teacher, you will see all your students' whiteboards in real time, so you can follow their progress. The students only see their own whiteboard and the teacher's. Whiteboard.fi is an instant formative assessment tool for your classroom, providing you with live feedback and immediate overview over your students.
Whiteboard.fi How-To Video Introduction
FlipGrid
FlipGrid
Flipgrid is a free video discussion platform from Microsoft that helps educators see and hear from every student in class and foster fun and supportive social learning. In Flipgrid, educators post discussion prompts and students respond with short videos, whether they are learning in class or at home.
FlipGrid Introduction Video (Educators)
FlipGrid Introduction Video (Students)
Khan Academy
Khan Academy
Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. The topics include math, science, computing, history, art history, economics, and more, including K-14 and test preparation (SAT, Praxis, LSAT) content. Khan Academy focuses on skill mastery to help learners establish strong foundations, so there's no limit to what they can learn next.
TeacherTube
TeacherTube
Although YouTube is a wonderful resource for video content, TeacherTube seeks to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.
Vocaroo
Vocaroo
Vocaroo is a service that allows users to create audio recordings without the need for software. You can easily embed the recording into slide shows, presentations, or websites. Great for collaborative group work and presentations.
Other Useful Resources
Other Useful Resources
Teach, Train, Love - 33 Ways to Build Relationships Teaching Online
http://teachtrainlove.com/virtual-learning-33-ways-to-build-relationships/
9 Ways Online Teaching Should be Different from Face-to-Face
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/9-ways-online-teaching/
50 Back to School Activities for the Remote Learning Classroom
https://daveburgess.com/50-back-to-school-activities-for-the-remote-learning-classroom/
Teaching Digitally
Google Sites
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